The Theft That Made The 'Mona Lisa' A Masterpiece : NPR The Theft That Made The 'Mona Lisa' A Masterpiece Embed Embed The Theft That Made The 'Mona Lisa' A Masterpiece The Theft That Made The 'Mona Lisa' A Masterpiece Embed Embed The right eye of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." On Aug. 21, 1911, the then-little-known painting was stolen from the wall of the Louvre in Paris. And a legend was born. Associated Press hide caption toggle caption Associated Press The right eye of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." On Aug. 21, 1911, the then-little-known painting was stolen from the wall of the Louvre in Paris. And a legend was born. Associated Press If you were standing outside the Louvre in Paris on the morning of Aug. 21, 1911, you might have noticed three men hurrying out of the museum. They would have been pretty conspicuous on a quiet Monday morning, writer and historian James Zug tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

"Sunday night was a big social night in Paris," he says, "so a lot of people were hung over on Monday morning." The men, three Italian handymen, were not hungover. But they might have been a little tired. They'd just spent the night in an art-supply closet. And on that morning, with the Louvre still closed, they slipped out of the closet and lifted 200 pounds of painting, frame and protective glass case off the wall. Stripped of its frame and case, the wooden canvas was covered with a blanket and hustled off to the Quai d'Orsay station, where the trio boarded a 7:47 a.m. express train out of the city. They'd stolen the "Mona Lisa." Famous, Overnight Before its theft, the "Mona Lisa" was not widely known outside the art world. Leonardo da Vinci painted it in 1507, but it wasn't until the 1860s that critics began to hail it as a masterwork of Renaissance painting. And that judgment didn't filter outside a thin slice of French intelligentsia.

Article continues after sponsorship "The 'Mona Lisa' wasn't even the most famous painting in its gallery, let alone in the Louvre," Zug says. Dorothy and Tom Hoobler wrote about the painting's heist in their book, The Crimes of Paris. It was 28 hours, they say, until anyone even noticed the four bare hooks. The guy who noticed was a pushy still-life artist who set up his easel to paint that gallery in the Louvre. "He felt he couldn't work as long as the 'Mona Lisa' wasn't there," Tom Hoobler says. But the artist wasn't alarmed. At that time, there was a project under way to photograph the Louvre's many works. Each piece had to be taken to the roof, since cameras of the day did not work well inside. "So finally he persuaded a guard to go see how long the photographers were going to have the painting," Tom Hoobler says.

"He went off and came back, and said, 'You know what, the photographers say they don't have it!' " All of a sudden, James Zug says, "the 'Mona Lisa' becomes this incredibly famous painting — literally overnight." A New York Times headline from August 24, 1911, reported the investigation into the disappearance of the "Mona Lisa." The New York Times hide caption toggle caption The New York Times A New York Times headline from August 24, 1911, reported the investigation into the disappearance of the "Mona Lisa." The New York Times Mark of Shame After the Louvre announced the theft, newspapers all over the world ran headlines about the missing masterpiece. " 60 Detectives Seek Stolen 'Mona Lisa,' French Public Indignant ," the New York Times declared. The heist had become something of a national scandal. "In France, there was a great deal of concern that American millionaires were buying up the legacy of France — the best paintings," Dorothy Hoobler says. At one point, American tycoon and art lover J.P. Morgan was suspected of commissioning the theft. Pablo Picasso was also considered a suspect, and was questioned.

And as tensions were escalating between France and Germany ahead of World War I, "there were people who thought the Kaiser was behind it," Hoobler says. After a weeklong shutdown, the Louvre re-opened to mobs of people, Franz Kafka among them, all rushing to see the empty spot that had become a "mark of shame" for Parisians. Meanwhile, the thieves had made a clean getaway. They were three Italians: two brothers, Vincenzo and Michele Lancelotti, and the ringleader, Vincenzo Perugia. He was a handyman who had worked for the Louvre to install the very same protective glass cases he had ripped from the "Mona Lisa." Perugia hoped to sell the painting. But the heist had received so much attention that the "Mona Lisa" became too hot to hock, Zug says. "Within days, newspapers were offering rewards.

[Perugia] could have brought it in, but I think the main reason he didn't do that is he was worried about being arrested — and that the story was so big that he probably didn't think he could get away with it." So Perugia stashed it in the false bottom of a trunk in his Paris boardinghouse. Of the more than 35,000 works of art in the Louvre, perhaps none is more popular than the Mona Lisa. KIKE CALVO/AP hide caption toggle caption KIKE CALVO/AP Of the more than 35,000 works of art in the Louvre, perhaps none is more popular than the Mona Lisa. KIKE CALVO/AP A Masterpiece Returned Twenty-eight months after he snatched it from the Louvre, Perugia finally made a pass at selling the "Mona Lisa" to an art dealer in Florence. But the dealer was suspicious. He had the head of an Italian art gallery come take a look at the painting. A stamp on the back confirmed its authenticity. "They said, 'OK, leave it with us, and we'll see that you get a reward,'" Tom Hoobler says. Perugia went back home.

But half an hour later, to his surprise, the police were at his door. "He said later that he was trying to return it to Italy — that he was a patriot and it was stolen by Napoleon — and he was trying to return it to the land of his birth," James Zug says. And so, with much fanfare, the painting was returned to the Louvre. Perugia pleaded guilty to stealing it, and was sentenced to just eight months in prison. But a few days after his trial, Dorothy Hoobler says, World War I broke out. Suddenly, the drama of an art heist was off the front pages. "This seemed like a very small story," she says. James Zug recently wrote about the Mona Lisa for the Smithsonian Magazine. Mona Lisa: The theft that created a legend - CNN.com Mona Lisa: The theft that created a legend By Sheena McKenzie, for CNN Updated 7:26 AM ET, Tue November 19, 2013 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – More than 100 years ago, in August 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen off the walls of the Louvre in Paris. The famous Leonardo da Vinci painting wasn't recovered until two years later, in December 1913. Hide Caption 1 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Vincenzo Peruggia, the Italian handyman who stole the Mona Lisa, had trouble with the law before -- once for attempting to rob a prostitute and once for carrying a gun during a fistfight. Hide Caption 2 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – This reconstruction shows how Peruggia perpetrated the greatest art theft of the 20th century. After hiding in a closet overnight, he simply removed the painting, hid it under his smock and walked out with it under his arm.

Hide Caption 3 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Peruggia encountered a locked door as he tried to leave through the Visconti courtyard. He desperately removed the doorknob, to no avail. Then a plumber who was passing by opened the door with a key. Hide Caption 4 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – It would be 24 hours before someone noticed the painting was missing. Artwork was often removed to be photographed or cleaned. Hide Caption 5 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Achille Beltrame illustrated the theft in September 1911.

"The Louvre had over 400 rooms but only 200 guards and even fewer on duty overnight," said Noah Charney, professor of art history and author of "The Thefts of the Mona Lisa." "There were basically no alarms in play." Hide Caption 6 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – A man in Paris offers the score of "Did you? Mona Lisa!!" It was a satirical song about the theft. Hide Caption 7 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Seen here is Peruggia's apartment in Paris, where Peruggia hid the Mona Lisa in a false bottom of a wooden trunk. Hide Caption 8 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Police ransacked Peruggia's apartment in 1911 looking for the stolen painting. They didn't find it.

Hide Caption 9 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – The poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested September 7, 1911, and jailed on suspicion of the Mona Lisa's theft. He was released five days later because prosecutors didn't have the evidence to build a case. Hide Caption 10 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Spanish painter Pablo Picasso was also questioned by police after buying two stone statues from Apollinaire's secretary, Josephe-Honoré Géry Pieret. Once Pieret admitted to stealing the statues from the Louvre in 1907, Apollinaire and Picasso returned them. Hide Caption 11 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – The Titanic sank on April 14, 1912, and focus shifted away from the failed investigation of the Mona Lisa theft. The trail had gone cold, and it was reported that the painting had been shipped out of France.

Hide Caption 12 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – The Hotel Tripoli-Italia, now called the Hotel La Gioconda, is where Peruggia showed the stolen painting to art dealer Alfredo Geri and Uffizi Gallery director Giovanni Poggi in Florence, Italy, on December 10, 1913. Peruggia, who claimed to have stolen the Mona Lisa to return her to her native Italy, was arrested and eventually sentenced to jail. Hide Caption 13 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – After Peruggia's arrest, the Mona Lisa was displayed for a week in the Uffizi. Hide Caption 14 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – The painting was displayed throughout Italy before it was returned to the Louvre in January 1914.

Hide Caption 15 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Guards and a barrier of benches surround the Mona Lisa at the Museum of the Offices of Florence in 1913. Hide Caption 16 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – This drawing, on the December 28, 1913, issue of Le Petit Journal, shows Da Vinci showing the Mona Lisa to King Francois I. Below that are drawings of the painting's theft and recovery. Hide Caption Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Peruggia appears in a Florence courtroom in June 1914. Hide Caption 18 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – After being found guilty, Peruggia served seven months in jail.

Hide Caption 19 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – Two men carry the Mona Lisa back to the Louvre in January 1914. Hide Caption 20 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – The Orens caricature "The return of the Mona Lisa" refers to the theft and recovery of the famous painting. Hide Caption 21 of 22 Photos: 100th anniversary: The Mona Lisa is recovered Mona Lisa recovered 100 years ago – The Mona Lisa appears in the Louvre in 1929. Today, she is the jewel in the museum's crown, helping attract millions of visitors each year. Hide Caption The Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre | History Today The Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre France Art The theft of the most famous painting in the world on August 21st, 1911, created a media sensation. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, is the most famous painting in the world.

Quantities of effort and ink have been spent over the years on identifying who she was and deciding what her enigmatic smile signifies, what she says about femininity, if anything, and why she has no eyebrows. Leonardo took the painting with him when he was invited to France by Francis I in 1516. The king bought it and at the French Revolution it was placed in the Louvre. Napoleon took it away to hang in his bedroom, but it was returned to the Louvre afterwards. The theft of this fabulous object in 1911 created a media sensation. The police were as baffled as everyone else. It was thought that modernist enemies of traditional art must be involved and the avant-garde poet and playwright Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested in September and questioned for a week before being released. Pablo Picasso was the next prominent suspect, but there was no evidence against him either. Two years went by before the true culprit was discovered, an Italian petty criminal called Vincenzo Perugia who had moved to Paris in 1908 and worked at the Louvre for a time.

He went to the gallery in the white smock that all the employees there wore and hid until it closed for the night when he removed the Mona Lisa from its frame. When the gallery reopened he walked unobtrusively out with the painting under his smock, attracting no attention, and took it to his lodgings in Paris. It was not until November 1913, calling himself Leonardo Vincenzo, that Perugia wrote to an art dealer in Florence named Alfredo Geri offering to bring the painting to Italy for a reward of 500,000 lire. He travelled to Florence by train the following month, taking the Mona Lisa in a trunk, hidden beneath a false bottom. After booking into a hotel, which subsequently shrewdly changed its name to the Hotel La Gioconda, he took the painting to Geri’s gallery. Geri persuaded him to leave it for expert examination and the police arrested Perugia later that day. Perugia apparently believed, entirely mistakenly, that the Mona Lisa had been stolen from Florence by Napoleon and that he deserved a reward for doing his patriotic duty and returning it to its true home in Italy. That was what he said, at least.

Many Italians welcomed the masterpiece home; people flocked to see it for a time at the Uffizi Gallery, some of them weeping with joy, and Perugia served only a brief prison sentence. The great painting was duly returned to the Louvre and has hung there safely and enigmatically ever since. The Day the Mona Lisa Was Stolen The Day the Mona Lisa Was Stolen Sign Up for Our Free Newsletters Thanks, You're in! Health Tip of the Day Recipe of the Day There was an error. Please try again. Please select a newsletter. Please enter a valid email address. Did you mean ? The famous Leonardo Da Vinci painting "The Mona Lisa" is seen on display in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre museum in Paris, France. (Pascal Le Segretain/Staff / Getty Images) Updated December 08, 2016. On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, one of the most famous paintings in the world, was stolen right off the wall of the Louvre (famous museum in Paris, France). It was such an inconceivable crime, that the Mona Lisa wasn't even noticed missing until the following day.

Who would steal such a famous painting? Why did they do it? Was the Mona Lisa lost forever? The Discovery Everyone had been talking about the glass panes that museum officials at the Louvre had put in front of several of their most important paintings. Museum officials stated it was to help protect the paintings, especially because of recent acts of vandalism. The public and the press thought the glass was too reflective. Louis Béroud, a painter, decided to join in the debate by painting a young French girl fixing her hair in the reflection from the pane of glass in front of the Mona Lisa. continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know On Tuesday, August 22, 1911, Béroud walked into the Louvre and went to the Salon Carré where the Mona Lisa had been on display for five years. But on the wall where the Mona Lisa used to hang, in between Correggio's Mystical Marriage and Titian's Allegory of Alfonso d'Avalos, sat only four iron pegs. Béroud contacted the section head of the guards, who thought the painting must be at the photographers'.

A few hours later, Béroud checked back with the section head. It was then discovered the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers. The section chief and other guards did a quick search of the museum—no Mona Lisa. Since Théophile Homolle, the museum director, was on vacation, the curator of Egyptian antiquities was contacted. He, in turn, called the Paris police. About 60 investigators were sent over to the Louvre shortly after noon. They closed the museum and slowly let out the visitors. They then continued the search. It was finally determined that it was true— the Mona Lisa had been stolen. The Louvre was closed for an entire week to aid the investigation. When it was reopened, a line of people had come to solemnly stare at the empty space on the wall, where the Mona Lisa had once hung. An anonymous visitor left a bouquet of flowers.1 "[Y]ou might as well pretend that one could steal the towers of the cathedral of Notre Dame," stated Théophile Homolle, museum director of the Louvre, approximately a year before the theft.2 (He was forced to resign soon after the robbery.) The Clues Unfortunately, there wasn't much evidence to go on.

The most important discovery was found on the first day of the investigation. About an hour after the 60 investigators began searching the Louvre, they found the controversial plate of glass and Mona Lisa's frame lying in a staircase. The frame, an ancient one donated by Countess de Béarn two years prior, had not been damaged. Investigators and others speculated that the thief grabbed the painting off the wall, entered the stairwell, removed the painting from its frame, then somehow left the museum unnoticed. But when did all this take place? Investigators began to interview guards and workers to determine when the Mona Lisa went missing. One worker remembered having seen the painting around 7 o'clock on Monday morning (a day before it was discovered missing), but noticed it gone when he walked by the Salon Carré an hour later. He had assumed a museum official had moved it. Further research discovered that the usual guard in the Salon Carré was home (one of his children had the measles) and his replacement admitted leaving his post for a few minutes around 8 o'clock to smoke a cigarette. All of this evidence pointed to the theft occurring somewhere between 7:00 and 8:30 on Monday morning.

But on Mondays, the Louvre was closed for cleaning. So, was this an inside job? Approximately 800 people had access to the Salon Carré on Monday morning. Wandering throughout the museum were museum officials, guards, workmen, cleaners and photographers. Interviews with these people brought out very little. One person thought they had seen a stranger hanging out, but he was unable to match the stranger's face with photos at the police station. The investigators brought in Alphonse Bertillon, a famous fingerprint expert. He found a thumbprint on the Mona Lisa's frame, but he was unable to match it with any in his files. There was a scaffold against one side of the museum that was there to aid the installation of an elevator. This could have given access to a would-be thief to the museum. Besides believing that the thief had to have at least some internal knowledge of the museum, there really wasn't much evidence. So, who dunnit?

Prev Stolen: How the Mona Lisa Became the World’s Most Famous Painting | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use Stolen: How the Mona Lisa Became the World’s Most Famous Painting One hundred years ago, a heist by a worker at the Louvre secured Leonardo’s painting as an art world icon After 28 months, Vincenzo Perugia was arrested for the theft of the Mona Lisa. Shown here is the transfer of the painting from the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction to France. (Bettmann / Corbis) By James Zug smithsonian.com June 15, 2011 It was a quiet, humid Monday morning in Paris, 21 August 1911. Three men were hurrying out of the Louvre. It was odd, since the museum was closed to visitors on Mondays, and odder still with what one of them had under his jacket. Related Content Ripped from the Walls (and the Headlines) They were Vincenzo Perugia and the brothers Lancelotti, Vincenzo and Michele, young Italian handymen.

They had come to the Louvre on Sunday afternoon and secreted themselves overnight in a narrow storeroom near the Salon Carré, a gallery stuffed with Renaissance paintings. In the morning, wearing white workmen’s smocks, they had gone into the Salon Carré. They seized a small painting off the wall. Quickly, they ripped off its glass shadow box and frame and Perugia hid it under his clothes. They slipped out of the gallery, down a back stairwell and through a side entrance and into the streets of Paris. They had stolen the Mona Lisa. It would be 26 hours before someone noticed that the painting was missing. It was understandable. At the time the Louvre was the largest building in the world, with more than 1,000 rooms spread over 45 acres. Security was weak; fewer than 150 guards protected the quarter-of-a-million objects. Statues disappeared, paintings got damaged.

(A heavy statue of the Egyptian god Isis was stolen about a year before the Mona Lisa and in 1907, a woman was sentenced to six months in prison for slashing Jean Auguste Ingres' Pius VII in the Sistine Chapel.) At the time of the “Mona Lisa” heist, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece was far from the most visited item in the museum. Leonardo painted the portrait around 1507, and it was not until the 1860s that art critics claimed the Mona Lisa was one of the finest examples of Renaissance painting. This judgment, however, had not yet filtered beyond a thin slice of the intelligentsia, and interest in it was relatively minimal. In his 1878 guidebook to Paris, travel writer Karl Baedeker offered a paragraph of description about the portrait; in 1907 he had a mere two sentences, much less than the other gems in the museum, such as Nike of Samothrace and Venus de Milo. Which isn’t to say it was obscure.

A letter mailed to the Louvre in 1910 from Vienna had threatened the Mona Lisa so museum officials hired the glazier firm Cobier to put a dozen of its more prized paintings under glass. The work took three months; one of the Cobier men assigned to the project was Vincenzo Perugia. The son of a bricklayer, Perugia grew up in Dumenza, a Lombardy village north of Milan. In 1907 at the age of 25, Vincenzo left home, trying out Paris, Milan and then Lyon. After a year, he settled in Paris with his two brothers in the Italian enclave in the 10th Arrondissement. At the time of the theft in 1911, the Mona Lisa was far from the most visited item in the museum. (Gianni Dagli Orti / Corbis) Vincenzo Perugia was short, just 5 feet 3, and quick to challenge any insult, to himself of his nation. He spent time in jail for attempting to rob a prostitute and for carrying a gun during a fistfight.

(Bettmann / Corbis) Perugia secreted himself overnight in a narrow storeroom near where the Mona Lisa was displayed and in the morning he seized the painting off the wall. He ripped off the glass shadow box and frame and hid the painting under his clothes as he exited into the streets of Paris. (Roger Viollet / Getty Images) After 28 months, Perugia was arrested for the theft of the Mona Lisa. Shown here is the transfer of the painting from the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction to France. (Bettmann / Corbis) At the time of its theft, the Mona Lisa was stored near the Salon Carré in the Louvre, pictured here. (Scott Stulberg / Corbis) Perugia was short, just 5 feet 3, and quick to challenge any insult, to himself or his nation. His brothers called him a passoide o megloi, a nut or madman. His fellow French construction workers, Perugia later testified in court, “almost always called me ‘mangia maccheroni’ [macaroni eater] and very often they stole my personal property and salted my wine.” Twice the Parisian police arrested Perugia.

In June 1908 he spent a night in jail for attempting to rob a prostitute. Eight months later, he clocked in a week in the Macon, the notorious Parisian prison and paid a 16-franc fine for carrying a gun during a fistfight. He even quarreled with his future co-conspirators; he once stopped speaking to Vincenzo Lancelotti over a disputed 1-franc loan. Perugia wanted to be more than a construction worker. Appearing in court in 1914 for the theft of the Mona Lisa, he was called a housepainter by the prosecution. Perugia stood up and declared himself a pittore, an artist. He had taught himself how to read and sometimes holed himself up in coffeehouses or museums, poring through books and newspapers. Stealing the Mona Lisa made sense. Most purloined paintings that were not immediately held for ransom didn't go to a wealthy aristocrat’s secret hideaway, but instead slide into an illicit pipeline being used as barter or collateral for drugs, arms and other stolen goods. Perugia had enough connections to criminal circles that he hoped to barter or sell it.

Unfortunately for Perugia, the Mona Lisa got too hot to hock. Initially, the afternoon newspapers in Paris had nothing on Monday, and the following morning’s papers were also curiously quiet on the matter. Would the Louvre cover it up, pretend it had not happened? Finally, late on Tuesday, there was a media explosion when the Louvre issued a statement announcing the theft. Newspapers around the world came out with banner headlines. Wanted posters for the painting appeared on Parisian walls. Crowds massed at police headquarters. Thousands of spectators, including Franz Kafka, flooded into the Salon Carré when the Louvre reopened after a week to stare at the empty wall with its four lonely iron hooks. Kafka and his traveling companion Max Brod marveled at the “mark of shame” at the Louvre and attended a vaudeville show lampooning the theft. In 1911, one man - without a plan, an escape route, or a buyer - managed to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Here's how he did it. Satirical postcards, a short film and cabaret songs followed—popular culture seized upon the theft and turned high art into mass art.

Perugia realized that he had not pinched an old Italian painting from a decaying royal palace. He had unluckily stolen what had become, in a few short days, the world's most famous painting. Perugia squirreled the Mona Lisa away in the false bottom of a wooden trunk in his room at his boardinghouse. When the Parisian police interrogated him in November 1911 as a part of their interviews of all Louvre employees, he blithely said he only learned of the theft from the newspapers and that the reason he was late to work that Monday in August—as his employer had told the police—was that he had drunk too much the night before and overslept. The police bought the story. Supremely inept, they ignored Perugia and instead arrested the artist Pablo Picasso and the poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire. (They were friends with a thief who admitted to pinching little sculptures from the Louvre.) The two were promptly released. In December 1913, after 28 months, Perugia left his Parisian boardinghouse with his trunk and took a train to Florence where he tried to offload the painting on an art dealer who promptly called the police.

Perugia was arrested. After a brief trial in Florence, he pleaded guilty and served only eight months in prison. Thanks to the high-profile heist, the Mona Lisa was now a global icon. Under a shower of even more publicity, it returned to the Louvre following mobbed exhibitions in Florence, Milan and Rome. In the first two days after it was rehung in the Salon Carré, more than 100,000 people viewed it. Today, eight million people see the Mona Lisa every year. As soon as the painting was stolen in 1911, conspiracy theories sprouted up. Was it a hoax? Some said the theft was the French government’s way of trying to distract public opinion from uprisings in colonial West Africa. A few months before the painting was found, the New York Times speculated that Louvre restorers had botched a restoration job of the Mona Lisa; to cover this up, the museum concocted the story of an outlandish theft. Even after the recovery of the Mona Lisa, the world was still incredulous. How could a few Italian carpenters have pulled this caper off by themselves?

For years, rumors surfaced that a gang of international art thieves had poached the painting and substituted a fake that was in Perugia's possession when he was caught in Florence. In a 1932 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, Karl Decker, an American journalist, offered a twist: a shady Argentine swindler had arranged for six copies of the Mona Lisa to be made and sold after Perugia’s theft (each buyer thought he had the original). Two English-language nonfiction accounts of the theft, a 1981 book by Seymour Reit and a 2009 retelling by R.A. Scotti, carry Decker’s story to the hilt, even though there is no supporting historical evidence. A century has passed since Perugia pinched the painting, and yet historians are still reluctant to give him the credit as the unwitting catalyst for making the Mona Lisa the world-famous icon that it is today. Like this article? Aug. 21, 1911: Mona Lisa stolen in Paris Aug. 21, 1911: Mona Lisa stolen in Paris Teresa Mathew Pin it Share On this day—Aug.

21, 1911—the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris . The work of art, by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506. The painter Louis Béroud first discovered the theft when he walked to the place where the Mona Lisa had been on display and found only four iron pegs instead of the famous painting. After the museum confirmed that the painting had in fact been stolen, it was closed for a week to aid the investigation. Though French artist Guillame Apollinaire was initially suspected (he in turn tried to blame his friend Pablo Picasso), the culprit turned out to be Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee. Peruggia had stolen the painting during business hours and walked out with it under his coat after the museum had closed. After two years of hiding it, he was caught when he tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence . As an Italian loyalist, Peruggia believed that Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings should return to Italy and be displayed in an Italian museum. He would go on to serve six months of jail time.

The Mona Lisa has been on permanent display at the Louvre since 1979. Reblog What famous artist was suspected of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911? – Natural Wellness Update Click here to see answer C. Pablo Picasso Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world was stolen on August 21at, 19911 from the Louvre museum in Paris, France. It was thought that modernist enemies of traditional art must be involved. They arrested and questioned the avant-garde poet and playwright Guillaume for a week before releasing him. The 2nd and most famous suspect was Pablo Picasso, but there was no evidence against him either. An Italian petty criminal called Vincenzo Perugia who worked at the Louvre for a time, removed the Mona Lisa from its frame, hid it under his white smock that all the employees there wore, and then walked unobtrusively out with the painting. Perugia mistakenly thought the painting was stolen from Italy by Napoleon and was doing his duty as an Italian countryman by returning it to Italy.

Shortly thereafter, he was arrested and the painting was returned to the Louvre were it has safely remained ever since. Paris art heist: Picasso & Matisse stolen by lone robber from Museum of Modern Art | Daily Mail Online comments A lone thief is believed to have carried out one of the most daring – and lucrative – art heists in history yesterday. The ‘burly man’ stole masterpieces worth tens of millions of pounds from a Paris gallery in an early morning raid. He broke into the Museum of Modern Art and made off with works by Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani. [caption] [caption] The haul is reckoned to be worth anything from £170million to £430million – although French officials attempted to play down the value of the stolen paintings. Last night it emerged that, incredibly, the gallery’s alarm system had been broken in some rooms since March 30. The security system operator had ordered spare parts to fix it but had not yet received the equipment from the supplier, officials admitted. There were also fears the thief may have had people ‘on the inside’ helping him. There were three security guards in the building at the time, but each has told detectives that they ‘saw nothing’.

Confirming the raid was the most costly in the history of French art, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe called it ‘an intolerable attack on Paris’s universal cultural heritage’. CCTV footage caught the ‘heavily disguised, burly figure’ jumping through a smashed window at around 6.50am. He is then believed to have forced a lock to gain access to the most valuable works in the building, which lies just across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. The canvases are thought to have been cut from their frames and taken away in a bundle. [caption] [caption] [caption] Some Paris officials put the value of the works at under £100million. But art historians said they could be worth four times that. Earlier this month a Picasso sold for a world record of £70million at auction. ‘They are wonderful works – the very best that the artists produced,’ a source close to the inquiry said. ‘Police are speaking to all of us in case people on the inside helped the burglar.’ Because the paintings – detailed right – are so well known, it is thought it would be impossible to sell them on the open market.

The Modern Art Museum has been a Paris landmark since it was opened in 1961, and had been considered one of the most secure in Europe. Yesterday it was shut to all visitors with a sign on the main door reading: ‘Closed for technical reasons.’ Meanwhile officers from the Brigade de Repression du Banditisme, the French police’s elite armed robbery unit, were scouring the building for clues. £15m: George Braque's 'Landscape with Olive Tree' was also taken. The paintings are so famous that they can not be sold on the open market, experts said £15: Amedeo Modogliani's 'Woman with a Fan' (left). £15m: Fernand Leger's 'Still Life with a Chandelier' The suspected thief was captured on one of numerous CCTV cameras inside the building. It was unclear why those monitoring the screens did not summon police as soon as they saw him. ‘He was heavily disguised with a hood and face covering,’ said an officer at the scene. Insiders working for low pay in the gallery are often suspected of helping art criminals, said the officer. Sometimes those involved leave clues suggesting a break-in, when in fact they simply used keys, he added.

France has traditionally been at the centre of the international art theft underworld, with paintings regularly stolen to order. The total world trade in stolen art is thought to be worth £4billion. In 2007 two [caption] Picassos worth £50million were stolen from the Paris home of the artist’s granddaughter, Diana Widmaier. Twelve Picasso paintings valued at around £17million were stolen from the French Riviera villa of another of his grandchildren, Marina Picasso, in 1989. Picasso is the most stolen artist in the world because of his prolific output, recognisable signature and valuable works. There are more than 500 missing Picassos on the London-based Art Loss Register of stolen works. The most famous art raid of all was the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris. Italian immigrant Vincenzo Perugia hid in the museum overnight before getting away with the priceless painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It was finally returned in 1914.

The largest art theft – unless it is officially eclipsed by yesterday’s Paris raid – happened in Boston in 1990 when raiders took 13 works, worth a total of around £400million, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A reward of £3.5million is still offered for information leading to their return. BIGGEST ART THEFTS IN HISTORY May 2010: A lone thief stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist at a Paris modern art museum. February 2008: Armed robbers stole four paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet worth $163.2 million from the E.G. Buehrle Collection, a private museum in Zurich, Switzerland. The van Gogh and Monet paintings were recovered. December 2007: A painting by Pablo Picasso valued at about $50 million, along with one by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari valued at $5 million to $6 million, were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil, by three burglars using a crowbar and a car jack.

The paintings were later found. February 2007: Two Picasso paintings, worth nearly $66 million, and a drawing were stolen from the Paris, France home of the artist's granddaughter in an overnight robbery. Police later recovered the art when the thieves tried to sell it. February 2006: Around 300 museum-grade artifacts worth an estimated $142 million, including paintings, clocks and silver, were stolen from a 17th-century manor house at Ramsbury in southern England, the largest property theft in British history, according to reports. February 2006: Four works of art and other objects, including paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Monet and Salvador Dali, were stolen from the Museu Chacara do Ceu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by four armed men during a Carnival parade. Local media estimated the paintings' worth at around $50 million. August 2004: Two paintings by Edvard Munch, The Scream and Madonna, insured for $141 million, were stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway by three men in a daylight raid. The paintings were recovered nearly two years later.

August 2003: A $65 million Leonardo da Vinci painting was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in southern Scotland after two men joined a public tour and overpowered a guide. It was recovered four years later. May 2003: A 16th-century gold-plated Saliera, or salt cellar, by Florentine master Benvenuto Cellini, valued at $69.3 million, was stolen from Vienna's Art History Museum by a single thief when guards discounted a burglar alarm. The figurine was later recovered. December 2002: Two thieves broke in through the roof of the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and stole two paintings by Van Gogh valued at $30 million. Dutch police convicted two men in December 2003, but did not recover the paintings. December 2000: Hooded thieves stole a self-portrait by Rembrandt and two Renoir paintings worth an estimated $36 million from Stockholm's waterfront National Museum, using a motorboat in their escape. All paintings were recovered. October 1994: Seven Picasso paintings worth an estimated $44 million were stolen from a gallery in Zurich, Switzerland.

They were recovered in 2000. April 1991: Two masked armed men took 20 paintings - worth at least $10 million each at the time - from Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum. The paintings were found in the getaway car less than an hour later. March 1990: In the biggest art theft in U.S. history, $300 million in art, including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Manet, was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, by two men in police uniforms. December 1988: Thieves stole three paintings by van Gogh, with an estimated value of $72 million to $90 million, from the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in a remote section of the Netherlands. Police later recovered all three paintings. May 1986: A Vermeer painting, Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, is among 18 paintings worth $40 million stolen from Russborough House in Blessington, Ireland. Some of the paintings are later recovered.

August 1911: Perhaps the most famous case of art theft occurred when the Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by employee Vinczo Peruggia, who was caught two years later.

Question: What famous painting was stolen from the Louvre in Paris in 1911?
Answer: The Mona Lisa